A meta joke that has been making rounds recently is in the form of a picture with the caption "The most politically correct cartoon" or something to that effect. The picture is actually non-existent, clean white space gleams from within the borders where it should have been.

The Prime Minister's speech at the 66th UN General Assembly evoked that joke vividly. The contrast with the Israeli PM Netanyahu's rousing, passionate speech could not have been starker.

No one can claim that the ability to make excellent speeches is a necessary condition for being a successful leader. It is also most definitely not a sufficient condition, we have seen a supposedly grand speaker fall from grace within a couple of years and what a great fall it was. The fact that Manmohan Singh is rather deficient in the speech department is well known. As a matter of fact, it has been noticed and written about by the international commentariat rather widely, for instance:

When India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appeared on Indian national television a full 18 hours after terror attacks started ripping apart Mumbai, he achieved quite an amazing feat. He turned a national emergency, crisis and tragedy into a Grade A snooze fest.

The speech - which can be viewed here for anyone suffering from chronic insomnia - had all the urgency of a road safety public service announcement. Even the static graphic headlines "40 Held Hostage at Trident!" and "101 Killed in Attack!" plastered across his face on the TV screens had more life than Dr Singh, who read the autocue as if he was struggling through an on the spot translation of Pig Latin. [India's Prime Minister Hosts Pajama Party, Virginia M. Moncrieff / HuffingtonPost]

What is lacking in delivery, can be made up in content. But PM Manmohan Singh certainly wasn't trying, neither were his speech writers. Deeply scared of offending sensibilities, the speech was dumbed down until it resembled an incoherent rambling of platitudinous BS taken out of boilerplate speeches of various socialist leaders - with some bits from occasional psychotic rants of various middle-eastern despots. Add deep layers of masking tape to take out anything too edgy.

Dr. Singh the economist put the blame for economic and political crisis squarely on the "traditional growth engines" of US, Europe and Japan. India is willing to contribute, only if UN shows the way. The root of all problems is inflation. This is caused by bad effects of globalization. But please let's not erect barriers to trade. Terrorism is a problem. But the villains shall not be named. We support Palestine. By the way, with East Jerusalem as capital and hope Palestine and Israel become friends. Hail Rajiv Gandhi! All this is his vision. Ok, I am done. [Hey, where's all the people gone?]

At a time of deep political and economic crisis, Dr. Singh and a large part of his cabinet (up to 9 key ministers) are currently in New York. That is to say, like Bollywood movie song and dance numbers that suddenly teletransport protagonists to Switzerland, Singh and his men have taken the palace intrigue to the New York city. Perhaps this is just as well, since the true ruler is back in India.


One presumes that various foreign policy experts will be able to pick out nuggets of deep strategic thinking from this gibberish. But they are the experts, the kind that has been calling the shots for over six decades.

"There could not have been a more communal rifle" - Kavita Srivastava (PUCL)

The recent communal violence in the Gopalgarh village in Bharatpur district, Rajasthan, could be an interesting case study of how communal violence starts, how various stakeholders (including NGOs, human rights etc.) jump in and muck up the scene, the challenges involved for an administration to control such situations and last but not the least, how media goes about covering (or not covering) those incidences.

Rajasthan, like other parts of the country, has seen a steady stream of communal clashes in recent years. They have involved both internecine clashes within Muslim groups as well as clashes of Muslims with other groups. In this case, the clashes involved Meo Muslims and Gujjars.

Background:

Gopalgarh appears to be the only Muslim majority (60%) village in the Kaman assembly constituency which is held by MLA Zahida Khan of Congress. The rest of the six seats in the district  are held by BJP. It is a neighboring district to Haryana's Mewat district, which is dominated by Meo Muslims. The Haryana Meo community holds massive clout over the Kaman constituency. Note: A Sunday Guardian report calls Gopalgarh a "Gujjar majority village" of 5000 with only 100 Muslim families.

Despite the curious demographic mix in this village which is influenced also by neighboring districts in surrounding states, the area has been largely free of communal trouble even during historical periods of communal strife.

Reason behind the dispute:

The reason behind the dispute was a plot of land which Gujjars claimed was a pond, while the Meo Muslims wanted as a graveyard. The dispute has existed for 42 years. In the 1950s, the land, which is part of a pond dug by kings in ancient times was by mistake clubbed with the graveyard near the mosque by a patwari (revenue official). There has also been court cases.

Graveyard related land issues create communal tension all over India, they have occurred in Delhi, West Bengal, all over. This is a contentious issue for which there is no easy solution. Naturally land requirement for burial grounds will keep going up. Where will this land come from? Land is a scarce resource everywhere, isn't it the root of all problems?

How the violence started:

Tension flared up in the few days preceding the violence, it is unclear what increased the tension - whether a legal move or an attempt by district admin to solve the dispute. There were meetings held with local Congress MLA Zahida Khan and a neighboring BJP MLA with community leaders but they failed to pacify the mobs that had gathered.

The exact trigger for the violence is unclear, with both communities blaming one another. What is clear is that the political leadership, including Congress MLA and district administration was already in the area. The Meo Muslims claim that Gujjars had barged into a Mosque, beat up the Imam and some others. Gujjars claim Meo Muslims set Gujjar houses on fire and looted their money. Then there was some issue about idol immersion in the pond and a cow slaughter.

It appears that in light of increased tension, there was already heavy deployment of cops in the area. The administration (at least the saner part of it) got wind of Meo Muslims from Haryana gathering in strength at the Mosque. Violence broke out either at the meeting or just after it. Both parties started firing at each other. Fearing an escalation, police opened fire to disperse the crowds. Since Meo Muslims were present in much larger strength in the area, they got the most of it.

Administration puts the death toll at 9, with dozens injured. Most (all?) of the dead are Muslims, the identified ones appear to be from outside the village, which would prove that there was indeed a large Muslim deployment from neighboring states.

Aftermath, NGO and Government Reaction:

Congress MLA Zahida Khan initially claimed that:  "... considering the seriousness of the situation a heavy police force was rushed to the spot but when the situation went out of control, police opened fire". She also claimed to have witnessed the police firing herself: "I saw the police firing at the people. It was horrifying to see what was happening. I demand from the administration that the senior police officers in Bharatpur district be removed. There should be an inquiry by an independent agency into the incident".

However, later she made the curious claim that: "Denying reports of communal violence and exchange of fire between Meos and Gujjars, Zahida said it was a "sponsored programme" by police and RSS".  - It is hard to see a violence not communal in nature, yet somehow instigated by a nexus of Police and RSS.

MLA Zahida Khan also made a statement that: "The district collector and SP were fair. But Additional SP O P Meghwal, Inspector Brijesh Meena and lower rank policemen were blatantly partisan. They misled the collector and the SP."  Strangely enough though, both the District Collector and SP has been axed over the incident.

NGOs and Human Rights Groups poured into the village otherwise under curfew and heavy police protection and a virtual no go zone except for carefully selected people. Among the groups present were The People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and the NGO Anhad. Kavita Srivastava of PUCL and noted secularist Shabnam Hashmi were also there and variously made allegations at RSS and district administration.

Other groups involved were Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan and Suchna and Rozgar Adhikar Abhiyan. Basically it was pouring NGOs. While the village was off limits to mainstream media, the Muslim news website TwoCircles and Sunday Guardian reporters made it there by being part of NGOs.

Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot has announced a compensation of Rs. 5 Lakhs for each of the victims families. It appears that aside from throwing a few mud balls randomly just to check if it will stick, Hindu organizations are no longer being blamed, at least with any amount of conviction. Congress is trying to find an escape route by putting the blame on police and district admin. Reportedly Sonia Gandhi has got involved into cleaning up the mess and the Congress is in "damage control" mode. Whatever that means.

Media Coverage:

Open any national (and many regional) TV news channel and you are likely to catch something about "riots" and "justice" etc. within 5 minutes, any day of the year, any time of day. Same thing if you open any national (and many regional) newspaper. Why is it then major riots such as the one we just discussed are being given a complete miss? Why don't the news broadcasters associations insist that Government allow them some access to communal violence affected areas?

Despite claiming the importance of "justice" over all other issues, media seems to be curiously shy in covering riots when they actually happen, like when it happened in Delhi or Adoni, AP or in Gopalgarh, Rajasthan.

Final Thoughts:

The Gopalgarh violence yet again demonstrated the challenges in preserving communal harmony in a socialist country - with vague notions of property rights and scars of a long tumultuous history, coupled with vested interests. It also raises serious questions about the role of certain NGOs. It is natural for groups involved in medial care or post trauma care to be sent to riot affected area. What were these ultra political outfits doing out there? Also, what's with that statement by PUCL General Secretary Srivastava (see picture) - even before all the inquiries are completed? She wasn't there when the firing happened, MLA Zahida Khan was. Even the autopsies aren't completed.

So, here we are, with a Secular Government at the center, a Secular Government at the State of Rajasthan, local MLA a Muslim belonging to the Secular party - yet, all the kings horses and all the kings men could not put communal humpty dumpty together in a tiny hamlet of Rajasthan.

The recent New Delhi High Court blast and the even more recent Agra Hospital blasts were stark reminders of the fact that in terms of vulnerability we have not progressed one bit beyond the lofty promises made after 26/11, neither have we progressed beyond the usual meaningless rhetoric by secular intelligentsia.

The National Investigation Agency, set up with much fanfare, has not been able to solve any case in 3 years. It has been deployed as a political PR arm of the Congress party's core political machine. Meant to be an independent agency which would stitch disparate agencies across the country, cut down on rumors and be a force to reckon with, the agency has bickered with state polices, kept leaking vital information and generally been a nuisance. It directly reports to the vaunted Home Minister of UPA, P. Chidambaram. Media can't get enough of either the agency or its supreme head. After the Mumbai blasts, media tried level best to try and find "things that had improved since 26/11". Unfortunately, the stark images of blast injured being carried like cattle in India's maximum city in a dirty truck and headless chicken like contradictory statements issued by NIA officials put a spanner in media's let's make PC look bright project. Public saw through it.

The country is at the time of the post a victim of natural calamity as well, floods in Orissa, Earthquake in North East area. The army is involved at both places, thankfully as it is relatively independent of political interference.

It is clear that we are caught in between two false ideologies neither of which is able to serve their intended purpose. If socialism is slowly starving us, secularism is merely hastening the job for some of the more unfortunate among us, like those at Mumbai, Delhi or Agra.